Modernist-Cuisine-Vol.-1-Small

Foreword
Foreword
When I saw the first sections of this book as it was
taking shape, I knew I was facing an exceptional
work of uncommon rigor and extraordinary
breadth. It is no exaggeration to call this a work of
brilliance. There has been nothing like it in the
history of the kitchen. But that is no surprise,
considering who created it.
I met Nathan Myhrvold seven or eight years
ago, when he came to dinner at elBulli. Our first
encounter was brief, yet I knew immediately that
before me was a man with a special gift, one of the
few people I know who has the ability to “read”
dishes. Avant-garde chefs admire an openness to
the joy that comes from experiencing creative
emotions fully, and we hope to find it in those we
cook for. Like other connoisseurs, Nathan was
able to enjoy our culinary proposals on the
physical and sensory levels; but he also understood
and felt the creativity of the ideas on display
in each plate. We chefs work for all who enjoy our
food, but there are times where, in the back of my
mind, I think we are most motivated by those
uncommon guests such as these.
Nathan and his team have done an extraordinary
job in producing this book, which reflects the
huge effort that went into it. The result is a true
work of artnot strictly a cookbook, but something
more: a work that will change the way we
understand the modern kitchen and gastronomy.
This is a book that is not complex, yet rich; not
easy, yet clear. I can think of few other works that
pair cooking techniques with such analytical
rigor.
As I read the book, two thoughts spring to
mind. The first is that now is a good time to
rethink how we teach nutrition and cooking in
schools. I have no doubt that this work will
strongly influence how these subjects are taught in
the future.
I also think that there is no better example than
this book of the dialog that has emerged between
science and cooking. In fact, these pages arguably
represent the climax of that dialog. Modernist
Cuisine helps establish a new language by which
chefs can communicate the complexities of their
intellectual work. At the same time, this is a living
work because it clearly lays a new stepping stone to
the future of cooking. It raises our expectations of
what a cookbook can be.
So turn the page and let yourself be seduced by
what follows, by this extraordinary compendium
of insight into the products, the techniques, the
recipes, the technology, the inspiration … all that,
and more, presented in an intelligent and heartfelt
tribute to gastronomy.
Ferran Adrià
Roses, Spain
July 2010
Over the road from my restaurant, the Fat Duck,
there is an annex housing a development kitchen
(or lab, as it’s often called) complete with sousvide
machines and water baths and rotary evaporators
and vacuum centrifuges and all sorts of
other cutting-edge equipment.
This wasn’t always the case. A decade or so ago,
when Chris Young came to work at the Fat Duck,
space was at a premium, so my “lab” consisted of
six small slatted wooden garden sheds that had
been built in the courtyard at the back of the
restaurant. It wasn’t glamorous, and it definitely
didn’t look very hi-tech. But good scientists, like
good chefs, are people who ask questions, who
experiment, who like to try new things. Chris
simply rolled up his sleeves and got on with it,
throwing himself into my projects with enthusiasm,
determination, and curiosity.
He’s brought the same qualities to this book.
Together, he and Nathan have assembled a highly
talented team of chefs, designers, editors, and a
photographer, and between them they have
produced a wonderful book. The photos are
spectacular. The recipes and techniques are both
practical and comprehensive, drawing on the
classical repertoire and on the ideas of many of the
great modern chefs, as well as presenting lots of
new material. Perhaps most important of all,
everything is presented in a clear, concise, and
accessible fashion.
I’ve long thought that the astonishingly rapid
and diverse evolution of modern cuisine in recent
years requires a new kind of cookbook that draws
on lots of formats, from lots of different disciplines,
in order to make its points. Using pantone
charts, perhaps, to show the range of browns for
different caramels, or explaining certain culinary
techniques in a series of technical diagrams, as in
an instruction manual. With its detailed charts
and tables, and its comparative and procedural
photographs, this book is, it seems to me, a bold
and welcome step in this direction.
We need books that do all this. Twenty years
ago, one of the key influences on modern cooking,
the late, great physicist Nicholas Kurti, had to give
a culinary science symposium a fancy title involving
the words “molecular gastronomy” in order to
secure funding and ensure the conference was
taken seriously. Fortunately, since then the role of
science in the kitchen has come increasingly to be
accepted.
However, it’s often still misunderstood. There
are people who determinedly resist the use in the
kitchen of things like liquid nitrogen and evaporators,
seeing them as somehow inappropriate and
“not cooking.” Yet many of the technologies and
tools we rely on every day in the kitchenour
fridges, freezers, and food processors, and even
our non-stick pans and super-sharp carbon steel
knivesare products of equally complex science.
Where do you draw the line? The logical end result
of this kind of purist thinking would have us all
cooking with sharpened sticks over an open fire!
There are other people who see science and
technology as somehow taking the passion and
emotion out of cooking, when in fact they’re just
more tools for the creative chef to work with
part of the batterie de cuisine alongside knives and
non-stick pans and freezers and food mixers.
And there are young chefs who see science and
technology as the end rather than the meansa
way of producing a culinary spectacle. I’ve been to
demos where the techniques used to create a new
dish are extremely impressive, but the end result is
inedible. The excitement of discovering new
concepts or technology mustn’t blind us to the fact
that what we cook should, first and foremost, be
delicious. That’s the bottom line.
Nathan, Chris, and Max have produced a
beautiful and fascinating book that explores the
possibilities of the latest scientific advances in
cuisine, and they manage to communicate their
excitement on the page. But they don’t neglect the
importance of how cooking has evolved and how
important it is to get a good grounding in the
basics in order to really harness your creativity.
Modernist Cuisine will make you ask questions,
experiment, and try new thingsand I find that
incredibly exciting.
Heston Blumenthal
Bray, England
July 2010
viii VOLUME 1 · HISTORY AND FUNDA MENTA LS FOREWORDS ix